We asked award-winning Artistic Affiliates KRISTOFFER DIAZ (playwright) and DEXTER BULLARD (director) a few questions. Read the interview below:
What excites you about this production?
KD: Things With Friends is the only play I’ve ever written where I’ve had no idea what the final stage product would be. It’s easy to imagine this play as a staged reading or a podcast, but how does a director pull off some of what I’m describing? Can the actors even physically do what I’m asking them to do? Will the audience join us on this odd little journey? I’m thrilled to have Dexter leading this remarkable cast into the challenges of this weird little play, and I’ve been beyond impressed with the whole team’s approach so far.
DB: The team makes the game. American Blues, the acting ensemble, design and every person behind the project are mission-driven to make great theater and it shows. Forty years success takes forty years of working extremely well together and it’s here up on Lincoln Avenue today.
What’s the collaboration between playwright & director like on this project?
KD: Dexter has gotten this play from the moment he read it. He’s got a phenomenal amount of trust in both his team and in the work itself. As a result, I’ve got an incredible amount of trust in Dexter. The actors have been onstage since the first day of rehearsal; that never happens. We’re all throwing ideas on the table without ego and with a whole lot of faith in each other. When the process works like this, it’s magic.
DB: It has been – almost unnaturally true – that Kristoffer and I “get” what this play is fighting to be. Our process has been full mutual trust to let the writing shine through as fresh theater. Even looking from our two perspectives, we both think this play is intriguing, complex, funny, layered and important.
What’s your favorite part of creating a world premiere?
KD: World premieres are, at their best, are pure happy terror. There’s literally no way to know how audiences are going to respond (let alone critics, which is a whole different story). And not to be rude, but we can’t really think about that when we’re making the show. We focus on what excites us about the work, what questions it raises for us throughout the process, what brilliant talents and insights our collaborators reveal as we work. World premiering a new show is kind of the platonic ideal of making theater. It’s a gift.
DB: I am privileged to exclusively direct world premieres and Midwest premieres. I love collaboration on something truly free to form by discovery as we go. To me, new work from living, fresh hearts and minds has always been theatrically more interesting and current than “reviving” anything…
What’s next – either personally or professionally?
KD: So much, and not much I can talk about! I’ve got the world premiere of another new play called Football Football Football Football in South Carolina next year. It’s nothing like anything I’ve written before: a live action cartoon with something like forty characters played by six women. I’m working on two new musicals that I can’t discuss. And we’re bringing my musical Hell’s Kitchen — featuring the music of my friend Alicia Keys — all over the country on our national tour (including a stop right here in Chicago in November).
DB: I hope to be directing a play bound for Broadway in 2026/27 (fingers crossed emoji here) pushing three new musicals, drafting a new holiday play, and developing a solo show/series with writer/actor and friend Dominic Conti. Always love getting back into travel, martial fitness, archery, dinner parties with my evolving intergenerational and interspecies family, and a kayak.